Kalshi in Pennsylvania: Legal Status

Status as of October 16, 2026

In the Pennsylvania documents located for this page, Kalshi appears twice, and neither appearance is an order. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board's comments to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, dated April 30, 2026, name Kalshi as a venue listing sports and other event contracts and set out the Board's view that a contract on the outcome of a sporting event is sports wagering. And Pennsylvania's Attorney General, David W. Sunday, Jr., is among the signers of a brief filed on October 7, 2026 asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take up New Jersey's appeal in KalshiEX, LLC v. Flaherty, the Third Circuit case that left in place a preliminary injunction for Kalshi against New Jersey's gambling law.

No Pennsylvania court case with Kalshi as a party, and no Board order, cease-and-desist letter or penalty directed at Kalshi, was located as of October 16, 2026. This page therefore draws no conclusion about whether Kalshi may offer its contracts to people in Pennsylvania, and none about any particular kind of Kalshi contract.

What the record shows

The Board's position rests on Pennsylvania's sports wagering statute, which its letter cites. The Sports Wagering chapter of Title 4, in force since its enactment on October 30, 2017, counts "exchange wagering" within "sports wagering," and Section 13C04 makes it unlawful to offer sports wagering to anyone physically in Pennsylvania without a certificate from the Board.

Kalshi's New Jersey dispute reached the Third Circuit, the federal appeals court whose circuit takes in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and the Virgin Islands. According to the court's opinion, New Jersey sent Kalshi a cease-and-desist letter after Kalshi began listing sports-related event contracts, and the District of New Jersey enjoined enforcement. On April 6, 2026 a divided panel affirmed. The majority, in Judge Porter's opinion, agreed "that Kalshi has shown likelihood of success on its argument that the CFTC's exclusive jurisdiction over DCMs preempts New Jersey gambling laws and the state constitution." Judge Roth, dissenting, would have held that Kalshi "cannot demonstrate a reasonable likelihood of success on the merits on its preemption claims." The case was New Jersey's, and Pennsylvania was not a party to it.

Three weeks later the Board's April 30, 2026 letter answered the CFTC's advance notice of proposed rulemaking (RIN 3038-AF65). It lists Kalshi contracts on whether a named person would appear at the Met Gala, the winner of a television season and whether the President would say a particular phrase in April 2026, as examples of what CFTC-registered venues now offer. It points to the Third Circuit dissent's account of an advertisement for sports contracts on Kalshi, and it contrasts the 21-year minimum for Pennsylvania's licensed sports wagering with the 18-year minimum it says most, if not all, exchanges use. The Board published the letter with a release on May 5, 2026.

New Jersey's officials asked the Supreme Court to review the Third Circuit decision on September 2, 2026 (Flaherty v. KalshiEX, LLC, No. 26-299). The Court extended Kalshi's time to respond to November 9, 2026. Between September 22 and October 8, 2026 eleven amicus briefs were filed, among them the October 7, 2026 brief of Ohio, 38 other states and the District of Columbia supporting the petition, which Pennsylvania's Attorney General signed. The others came from associations of gaming legislators and regulators, tribal governments, the National Football League, gaming industry groups, an advocacy group and two former officials.

What is not documented

The Board's October 2025 letter to Pennsylvania's members of Congress is an image-only file, and the Board's release describing it does not name Kalshi, so this page does not attribute anything in it to Kalshi. Kalshi's own website was not read, so this page reports no Kalshi notice about Pennsylvania users. Pennsylvania's state court case search is a form application that could not be read for this page; RECAP searches of the state's three federal districts and the Third Circuit, and a nationwide search pairing Kalshi with the Gaming Control Board, found no Pennsylvania case naming Kalshi. The Board's press releases through October 14, 2026 announce no action against it. No Pennsylvania record addresses Kalshi's election, economic or weather contracts, and no conclusion is drawn about them. The search is repeated on October 30, 2026.

What happens next

Kalshi's response in No. 26-299 is due on November 9, 2026. The docket read on October 16, 2026 shows no conference date, and nothing on it says when the Court will act on the petition. This page is next reviewed on October 30, 2026, and sooner after any Board action or Pennsylvania filing naming Kalshi, or any new entry in No. 26-299.

What this page does not do

This page is not legal advice. It does not say whether Kalshi may serve customers in Pennsylvania or whether anyone in Pennsylvania may trade on it, it takes no side on the preemption question, and it does not discuss taxes. It is reviewed every 14 days and after any filing, order or Board action, and a correction is made here with its date. The Pennsylvania legal status page covers the statute as a whole and the other venue that prices Pennsylvania markets.